Raineh Daze

Shadow Contract: A Demon-Slaying Action RP

Akira and Andrea

Walking through an abandoned shopping centre was a bizarre experience, although this wasn't the first time. Probably? Demons did like to go where people were plentiful, they might even have been called out to this place before, or something like it. At least a space normally meant to hold hundreds ought to give plenty of room for Andrea and the more combat-inclined members of their little group to fight... and afford Akira plenty of things to hide behind when they inevitably got anywhere near their target.

One day, she'd find a better thing to do during a fight than hope that she didn't get targeted instead.

She came to a stop at the blood, looking at it dispassionately. Maybe, once upon a time, she would have been bothered by it but... well, demons killed people. It was what they did, and part and parcel of the job was running into that. More important was trying to work out if this was likely to lead to their target.

"Probably some weaker demon? I don't think a Devil would drag the body off," she offered with a shrug. Someone else might volunteer to investigate the shop, but Akira didn't want to have Andrea go off to engage what was probably nothing more than some demonic hound again.

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

The double attack once more forced the hammer-wielding knight down, this time without the advantage of his hammer, both hands instead wrapped around the haft of the spear, barely holding it at bay. Something that seemed to give the merc some form of amusement from the throaty chuckle, eyes boring out of the helmet and towards Gerard.

"Looks like this northerner bailed you out. Kept you from joining the rest of the faceless, where you belong. Not with these," he spat, before descending into laughter once again and ceasing any resistance. Opting, perhaps, to give the opportunity to Steffen and die with spite.

@Conscripts@HereComesTheSnow

---

Tyaethe

"... Good," the paladin said, pausing to turn her gaze on the other Boars, "On your knees. Or I crush your head. Pick."

It was a statement without much inflection, but without the trickery on their side--and with the obviously diminishing numbers everywhere, their secret weapons keeling over even as their death throes threatened to take out anybody stupid enough to come near--it wasn't one that the rank and file seemed interested in testing. The majority followed the instruction.

The remainder ran. Tyaethe let them; what was the point?

Releasing her sword--as little as it probably did to slow the bleeding, it was better than nothing, and she could get it back in a minute--and looking around, she set off for the densest blob of Iron Roses. Somewhat awkwardly, given there was still the spear protruding through her torso, but nothing to seriously impede her progress. Not that the remainder of the fighting was much of an obstacle either, the lingering Boars not wanting to drag yet another problem into their existing fights.

All of which made it rather easy to actually get back to the healer that had come along with them. Well, easy when you could just avoid the combat and even the curse abominations were easy enough to track...

"Need someone healed. Quickly," she stated, adding "Not me."

The spear was just a nuisance.

Waiting for a nod, Tyaethe scooped the mage up and turned around. No point letting them follow, it would be best if she just ran through this mess herself. Then they could be done here, once everything was cleaned up...

Advent of the Dawn — A Mecha Musume/Tokusatsu-Inspired RP (Reboot)

Jennifer Whittemore

Watching for its response rather than continuing her aerial dance was a smart move, had she just blindly continued trying to avoid it... well, she would have been lasered for sure. Who knew how that would have turned out, beside painfully. But hovering, watching, gave her enough warning to note when it was actually taking aim for her and avoid the Warped's beam.

As well as when to take emergency correction to account for the impact from below sending its aim haywire. Punchy must have come through!

Which meant that it was her turn to attack again, hit this bit piece by piece while it was disoriented--no doubt, now, going to try and focus on the much more damaging threat from below, which would give Jennifer the opportunity to dive in. Not aiming fruitlessly, this time, she was going to try and pummel uh... well, it probably had a neck area, right? So just hit that again and again before she had to pull out before getting a faceful of vaporisation. Maybe that would drop it? If the impact from the rocket punch was enough. Or maybe they'd need another round.

Or something.

The Lion's Banner: A Fire Emblem-Inspired Anime Fantasy RP

Gisela

"Poison, hmm..." the mage climbed from her seat and shuffled over, placing one hand on his arm and starting to chant an invocation. The aura of chaotic magic around her stilled, replaced entirely with the rather unnerving feeling of constrained magic running through the Hundi and into him, a feeling like the smell of grass after the rain and a scent of the sound of thunder. Then she fell silent, the rush stopped, and the unearthly aura came back--slightly diminished, for now, but still there, licking away.

"That should remove any poisons," Gisela said, hand lowering, "Along with any intoxicants, medicines, other drugs, or similar."

It was rather like her to go for the maximal option of just removing everything vaguely poison-related from anywhere in the body rather than identifying and neutralising it, "If it still aches in a few days, I can heal any residual damage off. If it gets worse, come back and I can deal with curses."

Curses would be a bit trickier.

"Besides, you don't need this circle, you can draw a much more specific one whenever you need it," the demon added, having procured a match from somewhere and started playing with it. "I've watched you work before."

Gisela's ears drooped as she started explaining, "I was thinking of getting a house some day, inlaying this in the floor with quicksilver or similar so I didn't have to keep drawing new ones."

There was the sound of metal on flesh as Krysia's hand met her own face.

@Eisenhorn

The Lion's Banner: A Fire Emblem-Inspired Anime Fantasy RP

Gisela

"Magical healing? No, there should be no ache," the mage answered, ears twitching as she turned to look at Urden with a frown, "Sometimes, there might be phantom pains, but usually that comes with wounds that healed naturally first. Maybe if there was poison or some type of curse on it..."

The demon behind her had dragged over another sheet and roughly outlined the same circle, sans most of the detail. What was important was numerous sections outlined in red chalk. "These need to go, if you're going to make it a circle any halfway competent mage could power."

"But..." the hundi's eyes flicked back to the paper, despite Urden's presence, "Then the circle would need to be completed for every summon. That defeats the point of making one directed by the caster's intent."

Krysia groaned, straightening up, "Puppy... you're forgetting that most people don't know anything about demons. Or only know enough to select the worst examples. And in any scenario, they wouldn't know how to make a binding agreement safely.

"You, soldier," the red-skinned giant said, pointing at him, "Imagine a world where any mage could summon almost any demon, without knowing the first thing about controlling them."

@Eisenhorn

The Lion's Banner: A Fire Emblem-Inspired Anime Fantasy RP

Gisela

The Hundi was indeed in a library, although it couldn't be said that she was reading much. The tomes owned by most nobility, no matter how expensive or old, were hardly of interest to somebody like her. While some families might have a few works on magic, it was exceptionally rare that any single family would have such a magical tradition as to personally own enough esoteric works to hold an experienced mage's attention. She knew of at least one such family down in Thaln, but the political mess there made the ongoing trouble here look almost harmless... although, part of that was the troubles further north spilling over into the dukes' internal conflict.

Instead of reading, she was seated at a table, diagramming... something. "That looks like a magic circle" to the untrained eye, and indeed it was, but the goal or function? That would be a mystery.

Not that she was alone in inspecting it, the red-skinned demon leaning over the table seemed to be scanning it as well. Which could only suggest that it was something summoning related, she didn't seem the type to care much for other mortal spells.

"Do you really need this many redundancies to focus the mana? You're hardly lacking for power, even with the inefficiency you could power this one on your own."

"It's more the principle of the thing, even if nobody else would ever use the design..."

Shadow Contract: A Demon-Slaying Action RP

Akira

Couldn't demons try to be a little bit more convenient with their timing? Or maybe just stick to some low-level fodder for a week or two whilst everyone got settled in properly? No, of course they didn't, and it wasn't really fair or... well, sensible to hold them to account in such a way, but that didn't mean that she didn't want to complain to someone about it.

After all, she'd been in the actual break room at the time, because it had a pretty nice TV in there. And a couch, that was important. Children's magical girl shows weren't her favourite thing in general, but Shiro liked them, so that was what they they were watching. So of course something had had to interrupt when she'd had the adorable not-little sister nestled beside her. At least Akira had learned long ago to never try and watch things live, just record them and catch up when they had time...

Plus she had to hope that the guy she'd tapped to take the cookies out of the oven remembered to do that before the fire alarm went off. At least people should have something to look forward to when they were done.

Grumbling as such, the short girl tugged Andrea through the barrier. Right, devil in a shopping centre, hopefully it wasn't like one of those weird magical girl villains and wasn't going to attack them with the contents of a makeup department or something.

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Steffen's attempt at piercing the man's throat was unsuccessful, although the mercenary would never be likely to appreciate why, with Gerard's unexpected dodging of the swing and targeting of his vulnerable leg turning what would have been a poised attempt at defence--and likely a futile one, into an odd lurch as he already started to fall, only to catch the Ingvarr's shield too.

Stubborn as the man was, he still responded almost immediately to the winding with a snarled curse, attempting to use the hammer as a crutch and force himself back upright.

@Conscripts@HereComesTheSnow

---

With all the targeting of their legs and their ungainliness, it was unsurprising that the two other cursed monstrosities began to topple, either outright unable to support themselves or overbalancing with another wild swing. Not that the act of falling made them harmless, the wild flailing as their wounds gushed black blood maybe even more hazardous than the intentional attacks, for all the unexpected movement might accidentally clip one of their attackers with outrageous strength.

@VitaVitaAR@Crimson Paladin@Psyker Landshark

---

Tyaethe

It was a good thrust, even if it was so fuelled with vengeance. Fast, maybe even fast enough to have not needed the little deception trick they had going on to present a challenge. Accurate, too, with a pretty good understanding of the human body and weakpoints. Which made it a pity, as there was no need for her to do anything, the vampire standing in place as the point was rammed through her torso.

"Wrong spot," she added helpfully, crushing the hope rising in the man's eyes. And he had gotten too close, far too close, for as little lasting damage as the spear had done. Close enough that she could just reach out and grab his throat, gauntlet tightening. Behind... hm, she hadn't cut right through, or even anywhere near so deeply, all things considered. Only a matter of time, but not a quick one. Still beating. "He's not dead, not yet."

Maybe she shouldn't be giving this chance. She knew what the Golden Boars were, what they were willing to do. What they'd brought along as reinforcements. But it wasn't personal, they were just... idiot children. Almost harmless, the ones trying to keep her here. The only two that might really be a delay were a twitch away from being out of the picture.

"You could all surrender, rather than fight me," Tyaethe said, sounding tired. Or maybe just bored? The helmet made it hard to tell, "At least you'll have a chance."

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Tyaethe

The vampire stilled unnaturally, accepting the spear piercing into her abdomen. The mismatch... oh, how confident were they in their little deception, so so sure that it would pass scrutiny? Surely, this must be some amazing exhibition of speed, except they forgot they were dealing with an enemy that was no longer entirely human.

And she could hear heartbeats.

Ahead and behind, two heartbeats just lurking behind their protective screens. It was an impressive display, and no doubt effective if you could arrange for others to shield you to arrange it. But what if your target caught onto it? Well, there was only one way that was going to end, wasn't it? Acting on cue, the paladin spun to face the direction of her latest aggressor, grin invisibly splitting her face.

The duo were still speaking, but it was irrelevantirrelevantirrelevant. Who cared what taunts they had about spotting their 'clever ruse' or whatever it was? The heartbeat behind her was moving, and Tyaethe tensed, waiting...

Her sword swung wildly, the arc carrying it far behind her body. Exactly as intended. Its length was more than equal for some common spearman coming in to pierce her from behind, and no warning had been given.

How would their partner react, she wondered?

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

The hulking knight was forced to raise his hammer in defence, even as the very armour iced up. As a situation, it was untenable; he could barely move, yet a failed defence would see his head caved in. Except--

As Gerard had known, this monster was known for his strength. Even with the constraints on his leverage, the sheer lack of momentum, he somehow found the force to break Nico's ice, hammer raised to guard. And, just as swiftly, swung, with a laughing, "And why does that make you any better?"

For all the mercenary's grandstanding, and even the lack of pain in his voice, it was clear that something was wrong. His balance was stilted, an attempt being made to avoid any movement along one leg. The ice that hadn't been broken had done its work.

@HereComesTheSnow

---

The curse monsters could hardly be considered fast opponents. They were slow, lumbering. But they weren't oblivious, some spiteful awareness of the normal people around them guiding their actions. In Fanilly's case, an unexpected kick as it slowly turned to track her. Renar... well, he was hardly being subtle, and it fortunately seemed they were none too bright: one corpulent fist, swung wide round in response to his charge. Unfortunately for both of them, there was still the small issue of their sheer size and reach to contend with.

@VitaVitaAR@Psyker Landshark@Crimson Paladin